There may be a couple of months remaining until the holiday season proper, but here's a gift for you today:Yes, the pattern for Heather's Mittens (on Ravelry) has just been released. Grab it here or over here on Ravlery. As promised, instructions are provided to make both regular and fingerless mittens. I know some of you prefer the latter over the former, so I'm happy to oblige.

These mitts go up very quickly making them a gret addition to your holiday knitting. Go on and grab that pattern!

Progress continues on the new, free mitten pattern:At this point, she just needs a thumb. Did I mention that the pattern is going to feature instructions on how to make these as a pair of fingerless mittens? The gifting potential just increased tenfold! Oh, and her name is Heather, after (unsurprisingly,) Heather. Look for the pattern on Saturday, 25 October 2008. It would be finished tomorrow night if I wasn't going to a DAVID BYRNE show.

Viva Señor Byrne!

Don't forget to swing by here (or on Ravelry) on Saturday for that new pattern!

This should tide you over...What you see up there is the beginnings of my latest mitten, but there's a twist -- it's going to be a FREE mitten pattern! This will be my present to all you lovely knitters for the 2008 holiday season.

Look for the pattern by 1 November 2008 at the very, very latest (it will most likely surface this week -- 19 - 25 October.) You will have plenty of time to make a pair for yourself or for someone special this holiday season!

Where the mittens can't, won't, don't stop:This is Phedre, my newest mitten. Her pattern's just been released and you can pick it up both here on Ravelry and here on Etsy, in plenty of time for your holiday/winter knitting.

Here's her palm, complete with hidden thumb:I'm sure that some of you only have to look at this mitten to immediately get the reference, but for the sake of the uninitiated (among whom I numbered a scant couple of months ago) I will explain. I've already told you about how I can hardly see, do or read anything without thinking of how it would translate into mitten-form, and this mittens is further proof of that fact. Well, I've been reading Jacqueline Carey’s Legacy of Kushiel series, which features the heroine Phèdre. Phèdre's entire back is tattooed with a briar rose motif (her "marque,") which denotes that she has pledged herself as a sacred courtesan. I just couldn't resist being presented with such a distinctive and pretty symbol and I knew, fairly early on, that I would have to work it into a mitten.

PLEASE NOTE: NO SPOILERS PLEASE! I have not yet finished reading the entire Kushiel series! At this point, however, I am nearly finished reading Kushiel's Avatar, which is the third book in the series.

Here are some other things that you might like to know about Phedre:

The pattern is a clear, concise, 4-page .pdf file with large charts and images.

Size: Women’s Medium (or any hand that is 8” in circumference.)

Gauge: 10 stitches = 1 inch (2.5 cm) in Stockinette st.

Yarn: One ball of Knit Picks’ Palette (231yd / 50g) in both of the following colours: Garnet Heather (MC) and Black (CC,) or any other fingering yarn in these colours or colours of your choice, and a 15” piece of waste yarn of the same weight in a contrasting colour to hold the thumb stitches.

Needles: One set of five (5) double pointed needles in US 0 (2 mm) or size necessary to obtain gauge.

Notions: A stitch marker to mark beginning of round (optional,) and a sewing needle to weave in ends.

I'm beginning to think that I have a serous problem -- I can barely look at anything, be it textures, colours or any combination thereof without wondering how these elements woulds come together in a mitten. No shape, colour or texture is exempt from undergoing this process within my brain; it just happens.

I suppose if I were anyone other than me (and by this I mean forever destined to take the long, difficult path and then once done turn around and see the obvious, simple one) these urges would find no need to be expressed in mitten-form. I'm guessing that other people would just pick up pen or brush or clay and set about committing those shapes, colours and textures that seem so important to paper, canvas or clay respectively in a timely manner without having to make thousands of tiny stitches in the process (I actually did the math the other day -- I was appalled to find out how many stitches are actually in a pair of mittens knit on 2 mm needles. This knowledge, however, has not staunched the urge to continue producing such mittens. Long and difficult, indeed.)

Moreover, I find myself stopping and considering the most unlikely of things, on the off-chance that they might prove to be the next somethings that I'll need to deal with. Take the simple act of doing the laundry. Dirty shirts go in the wash, clean ones come out. Those clean shirts end up on the chair in the front room waiting to be folded. It's time for me to pull myself away from whatever else I'm doing for some quality folding-time......and I freeze. I'm too busy staring at the colours on the chair, the random way in which the laundry was taken out of the basket and laid there, waiting to be put away. Clearly this needs to be properly documented before this fortuitous spectacle (or clean t-shirts, to the rest of the world,) is broken up and put into its dresser drawers!

So, yes, I stood there and took pictures of my laundry. Allow me to warn you that if you do this the people you live with may look at you strangely (in some cases, more strangely. Anyway.) If this colour combination turns up in a mitten, please do not be terribly surprised -- my brain's already working away at this one.

And speaking of mittens, because how can I not have a new mitten on the needles or freshly released these days, there's another one coming this weekend:This is Phèdre (Ravelry link.) She'll be out this weekend. You might recognize her from Jacqueline Carey's Legacy of Kushiel series. Please note -- I have not yet finished reading this series, so PLEASE, no spoilers from those of you who have, thanks! I'll let you all know the second the pattern's out, as usual. Now I'm off to go tackle another mitten...it truly never ends.